The pirates, say naval officers, tend to station themselves out to sea overnight, often chewing the narcotic qat leaf, then between first light and mid-morning they close in and attack the first vulnerable looking merchant ship they spot.
Their favoured approach is to come up from behind on the port side (...) Frequently, they are deterred by non-lethal methods like water cannons or even barbed wire but when they do manage to climb aboard they often fire their assault rifles, and even their rocket-propelled grenades, indiscriminately.

If the merchant vessels can take protective measures, he added - either by putting up barricades to block the pirates getting on board, or locking themselves into their super-structure and making it difficult for the pirates to gain access - that buys the coalition force time.
"If they can extend that period out to about 30 or 40 minutes, it actually becomes very feasible that a coalition warship, or helicopter, or maritime patrol aircraft will arrive on the scene and will be able to assist them."

Should merchant vessels be arming themselves in defence, as suggested controversially in December by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates? Captain Richard Farrington, Operation Atalanta's Chief of Staff, thinks not.
"Industry thinks it's a bad thing, we think it's a dangerous thing and we would not condone it," he told the BBC. "(...) it brings with it as many problems as it does solutions and on balance we think it's more likely to escalate a difficult situation than improve it."